Today I made a truly excellent mushroom soup and bought an oxtail against the (inevitable) wintry day when oxtail is just what the doctor would order, if one had a doctor.

Nowadays, oxtail costs serious money. The man loading the next cooler over blamed “those foodies” for driving up the price of what used to be poor people’s fare. The packets he was setting out contained honeycomb tripe — again, stupidly expensive by the standards of one who used to eat tripe because it was the cheapest non-mackerel animal protein to be had. (You know you have achieved serious capability as a cook when you can make an appetising meal of tripe and onions.)

Tosh finished the stairs today, and they are, indeed, a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. Now that sawdust has ceased to be a component of the indoor environment, I can get the rugs cleaned and start hanging pictures.

I bought three folding bookcases from Amazon and, much to my delight, they fit in the bunker! Each one has three hinged shelves, and they stack. So I ordered six more (at no small cost), and therefore can plan the unpacking of those twelve boxes of books cluttering up the dining room.

Again, still, it’s weirdly warm in Ottawa. The trees should be all red and orange by now, but no — nothing doing. The middle of October and no killing frost in sight.